Blu-ray Sales: Avengers Continues Cinderella Story

October 21st, 2012

The Avengers remained in top spot on the Blu-ray sales chart with 824,000 units / $20.61 million for the week giving it totals of 4.21 million / $88.30 million after two. The number of Blu-rays that have sold more units can be counted on the fingers of one hand.
Cinderella led the new releases and was right behind with 806,000 units / $18.53 million. This is excellent for a catalogue title, but below The Lion King's debut last year. However, that release also came out on 3D in theaters, which likely boosted the home market numbers. Dark Shadows only managed third place with 250,000 units / $5.82 million. Its opening week Blu-ray share was only 37%, which is not impressive. Granted, it is not a special effects laden action film, but it is a visually impressive movie, so I was hoping for more. Snow White and the Huntsman slipped a spot to fourth place with 38,000 units / $951,000 for the week and 995,000 units / $21.29 million after four. This is a solid run given its box office numbers and its target demographic, which skews more female than most action films. The Hunger Games rose to fifth place with 31,000 units / $660,000 over the week for totals of 3.09 million units / $63.02 million after eight weeks of release. This film remains one of the biggest hits of the year.

Downton Abbey Seasons 1 & 2 Limited Edition Set sold 15,000 Blu-rays and generated $645,000 in sales, which was enough for 16th place. Its opening week Blu-ray share was 34%, which is really good for a period piece TV drama.

With no monster hit coming out this week, it should come as no surprise that the overall Blu-ray market was lower. Compared to last week, there were 43% fewer units sold and 34% less revenue generated. Compared to last year, Blu-ray sales were also weaker, albeit by a smaller margin of 24% in terms of units and 23% in terms of revenue. DVD sales were also weaker when compared to last week; in fact, they fell faster down 47% in terms of units and 43% in terms of revenue. It held up better compared to last year, but was still down 28% in terms of units and 18% in terms of revenue. The overall Blu-ray share was very strong at 54% in terms of units and 62% in terms of revenue. It will be interesting to see if it can maintain this level through the holiday shopping season. Black Friday tends to bring incredibly deep discounts on DVD, so that might throw the numbers that week, but let's hope Blu-ray wins more weeks than it doesn't.